The Las Vegas Insider Meetup Where Casinos Find The Future

Vices
Truth is, the game was rigged from the start. So I study gaming.

Sensory overload.

That’s the only way to describe what hits you in the face when you walk on the exhibition floor of the 2018 Global Gaming Expo. Presented by the American Gaming Association since 2001, G2E (as gaming insiders call it) is where casino executives meet the future. Through post 9/11 jitters to mid-2000s exuberance to the Great Recession and back, through expansion in Asia, online gaming, and #metoo, G2E has been the gaming industry’s annual get-together.

Mass-produced gelatin shots are only one of the many offerings at the Global Gaming Expo. Photo David G. Schwartz.David G. Schwartz

This year, as for the past several years, G2E transforms the Congress Center and Sands Expo at the Venetian/Palazzo on the Las Vegas Strip into the world’s biggest casino marketplace, of everything from information technology best practices to chairs. It’s the place where casino insiders—and those who want to sell to casino insiders—meet, mingle, and discover.

“The show,” as the true insiders call it, is divided into two parts. “Education” is a 12-track series of panels, seminars, and keynotes on topics ranging from gaming leadership and career development to non-gaming growth opportunities in esports (one of several new 2018 offerings). Sessions can get pretty technical: you don’t need a law degree to attend “Changing the Game: The Legal and Regulatory Aspects of a PASPA Repeal,” but it probably helps. “Connecting Business, Analytics, and IT to Realize a Return on Investments” will only make sense to someone who uses technology in their day-to-day worklife to track and analyze customer spend on everything from slot machines to spas.

The Expo Hall is where an education of another sort takes place, once you get past the sensory overload. It’s over a million square feet of convention space filled with blinking, beeping and flashing lights, signs, and screens. Anything that a casino could conceivably use is on display and for sale.

There are slot machines, of course—enough to fill a large casino. But you’ll also find attorneys, footwear, payment solutions, flooring, hospitality education, and chairs you can talk to, try on, see simulated, walk on, learn about, and settle into, respectively.

Slot machines are a big part of the expo floor at G2E. Photo David G. Schwartz.David G. Schwartz

None of the games take money, but there are temptations. The “Integrated Resort” neighborhood of the convention floor features a number of booths giving out free sample of whatever they are offering. It could be a chance to meet Chubby Checker or a cup of Wild Bill’s Olde Fashioned Soda Pop.

Ubiquitous culinary supplier Sysco has its own cordoned-off section of the floor, with bouncers at the entrance. To get in, you have to be a food and beverage executive, property manager, or other key decision maker. They really do turn people away.

But they let media in, and I can see why the admissions policy is so selective. Sysco’s domain is divided into a series of booths, each featuring the comestibles of Sysco’s providers and clients. And staff at each booth really, really want you to sample what they have. It starts with a friendly invitation to sample a taco from George Lopez’s Chingon Kitchen, and intensifies with a spread of seafood ranging from sushi to oysters. You might be able to resist the selection of cheeses, meats, peppers, and other light fare on the other side of the aisle, but things get tough at Le Waf, “the Artisan Waffler,” where a man with a tray of waffles will literally chase after you. By the time you’ve run the gauntlet and made it to the cheesecake, macarons, and gelato, you’re either proud of your willpower or stuffing everything you can in your mouth.

Booths with food to give away are always popular at G2E. Photo David G. Schwartz.David G. Schwartz

You step out of Sysco, and a woman with a glowing tray offers you a Jello shot. It’s actually a Jevo shot, courtesy of an automated shot-maker than can craft hundreds of boozy shots in a few minutes. You don’t take one, but you notice the tray is half-empty and the machine, if it was a human bartender, would probably be getting overtime.

But executives aren’t here for the Jello shots. They want to figure out what they need to buy to make more money in the coming year. Again, the range of vendors can be surprising. A booth with an assortment of household goods from showerheads to salt-and-pepper shakers intrigued me. A one-stop shop for filling out a casino suite? Not exactly, the representative from HDS Trading Corp. told me. The company sells casinos items that they give away to their most valued customers.

The casino promo giveaway game has come a long way from satin jackets and toasters. Right now, the HDS rep tells me, the hottest item that customers will play big bucks to get for free is a kitchen canister set. Salt and pepper shakers and bath collections move well too. His company doesn’t even do toasters anymore due to the liabilities involved with electronics.

You may not believe it, but these kinds of items are incredibly popular as casino promotional giveaways. Photo David G. Schwartz.David G. Schwartz

There are also reminders that we live in a world where casinos do more than give away matching coffee/pasta/sugar containers. The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation has a booth showcasing its 9/11 Never Forget Mobile Exhibit. A tribute to all those lost in the terrorist attacks of that September day, the memorial, which transforms a 53-foot tractor-trailer into a 1,000 square foot exhibit, has welcomed over 250,000 visitors. Five or six casinos have already hosted the temporary exhibit, and, if this year’s presence at G2E is a guide, more will be doing so in the future.

The most valuable thing about G2E for an outsider is that it perfectly captures the hopes and anxieties of the global gaming industry at a precise moment in time. This year’s education program, with sessions like “Sports Betting: A Way Forward in the U.S. and How iGaming Fits In” and “Gaming Regulatory and Operator Issues in the Wake of the #MeToo Revelations” would not have happened in 2017, much less 2001. A glance through the annual education programs of G2E would give a fine overview of how the industry has evolved over the past 18 years.

What drives the program is a mix of social, political, and economic changes. Some of these transcend gaming—like #MeToo—but much of the program is dictated by where gaming insiders think gamblers and resort guests will be in the next year. This is doubly so on the exhibit floor. Skill-based games have been the toast of G2E for many years, and although they haven’t demonstrated much of an impact on bottom casino lines yet, there are several providers exhibiting their products this year. Despite all the offerings, however, they have yet to strike the balance between earning consistent money for the casino and not making the player feel like an idiot. Because you chalk up losing games of chance to fate, but the blame for your failure at a skill game by definition is between the keyboard and the seat.

By using skill-based games, casinos hope to lure generations that grew up on Pac-Man to slot machines. Photo David G. Schwartz.David G. Schwartz

Sports betting, thanks to last May’s PASPA repeal, is ramping up in the United States, and a host of providers, from SportRadar data services to manufacturing giant IGT, are selling their wares. For the next several years, at least, expect to see sports betting purveyors taking a prominent place amongst the uniform manufacturers, ID scanners, cash handlers that fill the ranks of G2E exhibitors.

Sensory overload. All those blinking and beeping and flashing lights get to be a bit too much, you trek your way out of the Expo Hall. Things are more reserved here. You see a modest installation promoting the AGA’s G2KG (Get to Know Gaming) initiative, and you realize that for all the flash on the floor this is a sober, respectable industry.

Then a drum line, followed by a quartet of baton-twirling cheerleaders, all of them decked out in full Vegas Golden Knights gear, comes marching noisily by, drumming up (sorry for the pun) excitement for…it doesn’t really matter what at this point.

It might be serious business, but there’s no mistaking that you’re in Vegas.

It might be serious technology, but many booths still relied on Vegas pizzazz to showcase their wares. Photo David G. Schwartz.David G. Schwartz

I grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and worked in casinos there, catching bad guys and selling nuts (not simultaneously). That's how I got interested in studying casinos, gambling, games, and tourism. My Ph.D. in US History is from UCLA. Day job is directing the Center ...